UI Law Professor Barb Cosens Gets NSF Grant to Do Water Research Down Under
Monday, January 5
MOSCOW, Idaho – Jan. 5, 2015 – University of Idaho College of Law Professor Barbara Cosens has been selected as a visiting professor with the ANZSOG—Goyder Institute Visiting Professors Program in association with Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, for part of the 2015 spring semester.
The competitive selection process required Cosens’ proposal for research in Australia to focus on “addressing the public policy challenges of how finite resource use can effectively be managed through cooperation, with a priority focus on water policy and management.”
University of Idaho Vice President of Research, Jack McIver, says “Since it is rare for legal scholars to achieve funding through a National Science Foundation synthesis center, this award signifies both the stature of the investigator and the importance of her work.”
Cosens’ proposal to the ANZSOG-Goyder Institute built on a project she co-chairs with Lance Gunderson of Emory University, Social-Ecological System Resilience, Climate Change and Adaptive Water Governance, part of a series of workshops from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at the University of Maryland–an NSF-funded synthesis center.
The synthesis project is focused on six North American water basins and explores the role of law in presenting both challenges and opportunities for adaptive water governance in the era of climate change.
During her time at the ANZSOG-Goyder Institute, Cosens will apply the concepts from the synthesis project to the legal and policy setting of Australian water management. Her focus will be on the Lake Eyre Basin, an internally drained basin covering a large portion of South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territories and a portion of New South Wales, and linked to the Great Artesian Basin.
“International collaboration is just one example of how truly outstanding our College of Law faculty are and the opportunities afforded to students who interact with them,” said UI College of Law Dean Mark L. Adams.
Follow Professor Cosens’ adventures down under on her blog at the Law Community Blog: “Water Down Under” posts.
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Cindy Hollenbeck
UI College of Law
208-885-7115
cynthiah@uidaho.edu
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